Full Time selected goals from the EPL

After a well deserved 2 week vacation to Italy with my fiancée, I feel very refreshed and energised for the challenges the world of football has install for us fans, more specifically my favorite topic, goalkeeping. Before I get into this weeks’ analysis, I would like to share a few things about my vacation in Italy. One of the best experiences about the Italian culture is the food and the importance of family unity. As we all are aware of the devastating effect the pandemic has created and contributed in destroying family units due to difference of opinions and choices, love and unity can only prevail in these trying times. That’s enough talk for now about my vacation so we dive straight into what goals I’ve selected for review.

As always, my views and opinions are mine and I do encourage readers to engage with my content if they feel the need to express their school of thought because as you know, debates are catalyst to enlightenment. Without further ado, this week we will stick with analysing saving technique choices, goalkeeper awareness and set positioning as its becoming more apparent that majority of goals conceded are attributed to the improper execution of these disciplines. The games we will be going over are Leeds United FC vs Everton FC, Southampton United vs Chelsea FC, Fulham FC vs Brighton and Hove Albion, Crystal Palace FC vs Brentford FC and Arsenal FC vs Aston Villa

Leeds United vs Everton FC : 1 – 1

Straight off the bat, is a typical reoccurring scenario of the spread save attempt where the Leeds goalkeeper tried to execute to compensate after a momentarily slip of awareness

What made the goalkeepers tactical approach so weak was the initial build up to the goal. The oppositions attack was well inside his teams final third and he assumed the lackadaisical posture, the exact opposite to the rule of thumb which is to be vigilant in awareness and set positioning. Although his movement towards the striker was textbook, his choice of footwork induced him into the spread save, making the choice for the striker a lot easier to place the ball between his open legs . The striker would have found situations a lot harder if the goalkeeper stood up momentarily longer on the balls of his feet. This pattern has been spotted by the top pros and it will be continued to be exploited if goalkeepers don’t make radical adjustments accordingly.

The equaliser was a decent goal but one would expect a top goalkeeper to make an attempt to dive to make the save and for Pickford who is and international, the onus was on him on this instance especially with the amount of pressure he has been under to elevate his game. Back to the goal conceded, the goalkeeper seemed to be flat footed the moment the striker pulled the trigger indicating his initial footwork movements wasn’t effective enough to initiate the proper set positioning, which involves standing at the balls of his feet. On this level, one has to be on their metagame to compete effectively and slipups like these will cost you, and I am certain Pickford is aware of this.

Southampton United vs Chelsea FC : 2 – 1

Chelsea FCs goalkeeper Édouard Mendy has recently come under criticism relating to the last two games were he made a gravely error against Leeds United, trying to dribble the ball past the opposing striker in his 6 yard box and failed, resulting in conceding. Then the next game he haplessly conceded a goal at the near post against Leicester City. He was under pressure to rebuild self confidence in this game and although he generally had a decent display, he would be disappointed about his application in the diving save that wasn’t optimal in preventing the first goal

A point of observation perceived among very tall goalkeepers is they tend to execute the A Frame set positioning to get lower and set for a dive. The unfortunate situation here is that by adopting the A Frame stance, there is a high possibility of executing a negative step dive, which basically has little or no agility mechanics in dealing with low out-of-reach shots. In this scenario, Mendy had a wide A Frame stance and had to drop his left leg inside to make the dive and falls almost flat with his outreached left arm that almost got to the ball. If the left leg/foot was planted on the ground he would have generated enough power to spring low for the save and this can only be achieved if he was on the ball of his feet. The A Frame set positioning is a common trait with modern goalkeepers that yields less than 40 percent success rate which is far from optimal

Fulham FC vs Brighton and Hove Albion : 2 – 1

I’ve come to the conclusion that own goals in many cases must be viewed as unexpected shots, deflections and unforeseen errors that requires instinctive exceptional reflexes from goalkeepers. This particular discipline has been gradually eroding away from the modern game and this illustration here supports the theory

The goalkeeper should be aware that situations like these are likely to occur especially when the opposition plays a high or low ball across the 18 yard box. Always expecting the unexpected as a rule of thumb elevates the goalkeepers awareness and amplifies reflexes. Unfortunately the goalkeeper wasn’t in a state of readiness and was half a second late to respond to the danger, inducing him to rely on his outstretched right leg to make the interception. A low dive to his right would have intercepted the ball but as mentioned, amplified reflexes is required. In addition, using the legs in that situation can be perceived as an overplayed routine in an attempt to make the save and as statistics would have it, over a period of time one gets diminishing returns.

Crystal Palace FC vs Brentford FC : 1 – 1

When we see a top corner goal scored, the natural response is to heap praises to the strikers accuracy and precision. Another general response among so called pundits is that the goalkeeper had no chance of saving the goal. For the latter, I tend to be more analytical about what constitute an unstoppable goal and what is actually savable, and I say this as an experienced ex goalkeeper and critic

I analyse a strike in this particular order

1. The Distance
2. The Velocity
3. The Trajectory
4. The Curve (or Curl)

These 3 criteria helps to make a close to accurate assessment as to whether the goalkeeper could have made a save or not. Remember these criteria are subjective with variable outcomes which get very technical even for professional goalkeepers and goalkeeping coaches to grasp. I will be writing a seperate blog on this subject in the future.

In this particular incident, the strike distance was angled about 19 yards towards goal, relatively moderate velocity with a slight curve on a moderate trajectory loop. The goalkeeper was in the perfect position if he had the required agility to execute, which he didn’t because he pushed off with his left foot only. Also his timing was half a second slow as one can clearly see the ball in flight passing him as he just pushed off the ground. I have always been and advocate of taking off the ground with both feet if one will have the opportunity in making unbelievable top corner saves but it seem this particular skill isn’t adopted by the majority of modern goalkeepers I’ve studied. The mechanics and dynamics of creating power in a dive with both feet as opposed to using just one foot is unequivocal in its results. Unless goalkeepers acknowledge that this skill set is a potential game changer then we will continue to see more sub optimal attempts like this.

Arsenal FC vs Aston Villa : 2 – 1

Parry, parry, parry.. the dreaded parry. The parry that creates an illusionary save only to be quickly hit with the disappointment of a thunderous putback into the net. Another common trait with modern goalkeepers is that they are so intent on keeping the ball out of the net, they forget the basic skills of scooping and catching the ball

Because goalkeepers are so accustomed now to using the legs to block shots, the natural flow of basic goalkeeping skills is slowly becoming non existent. What could have been a routine scoop save from the initial shot turned out to be a neurotic parry reaction that presented the opposition a second bite of the cherry. Parrying the ball should not play an integral part of one’s percentage save ratio for the simple reason being that the success rate is 50/50, which statistically isn’t optimal due to variables and complexities of each game. The onus was on the goalkeeper to make the first save clean, but came up well short and got punished for it.

The equaliser, straight from the corner-kick into the net. What happened here? Well the goalkeeper was at fault here, not because he didn’t get to the ball but he failed to get one of his teammates to come between him and the opposing striker for protection. This is a fundamental rule of thumb practise facing corner-kicks as a goalkeeper, because the opposition will always find an edge to eliminate the threat of the goalkeeper. Not only Ramsdale failed on this, he tried to draw the referees attention to an alleged foul committed on him. VAR was consulted and the verdict was that the goal was legit. Next time remember to be vocal and get your troops in line.

Conclusion

My last few blogs have been about goalkeepers conceding goals and the reason for this was to highlight some particular impact issues regarding the evolution of the skill sets in modern day goalkeeping, compared to old school (school of hard knocks) goalkeeping. In my next blog I will be focusing on the best of goalkeeper saves for the week and believe me this will be a laborious effort to make a compilation from the EPL. I might have to venture out to La Liga, Serie A or Ligue 1 as it would be great to do some analysis on saves. Make sure you leave your comments as they are valuable in creating a community where we share and exchange knowledge.

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